A lobster is a crustacean which has found great favour with gourmets as a delicacy. The lobsters are lured to a trap placed on the bottom of the ocean with a buoy extending therefrom. The lobsters enter the trap and are unable to escape. Periodically, the lobster fishermen will raise the trap and remove therefrom any lobsters meeting the required size limitations.
With their powerful claws, lobsters represent a danger to the fishermen, the consumer and anyone else handling the lobster. Indeed, they represent a danger even to other lobsters as lobsters will attack each other.
In order to obliviate the above problem, the lobster fisherman will place an elastic band about the claws such that they are unable to be opened. To date, this has been done in a manual manner wherein the lobster fisherman has a supply of rubber bands and a tool is utilized to stretch the band and place it about the pincers of the claw.
There have been proposals to automate the placement of the rubber bands on the claws. However, the machines developed for such a purpose have not received commercial acceptance.